Have you been watering the driveway?

Those colors will probably blend in after the concrete cures.

I was never told that... just to not drive on it for about five days. :( It's been about a week since the driveway was poured. Is it too late to start watering it? if not, how often should I water the driveway? Thanks!

Google; moist concrete curing, and or; do I spray water on my freshly poured concrete.

been watering the driveway consistently the past several days. noticed today that the "cracked" lines are still there. is this part of the normal curing process?

The cracks are not going away. The wet curing process should have started much sooner.

https://www.wagnermeters.com/concrete-moisture-test/concrete-info/wet-curing-drying-time/

We need more info. Geographical location. Temp, humidity & weather conditions (hot wind?) on day of the pour & following days. Site (full sun?)

northern VA. was poured about 10 or so days ago. the weather was damp and overcast and about 50 degrees or so. don't recall any rain though. the following days were fairly dry and in the 50-60s.

the affected area of the driveway was poured on the same day but later (maybe couple hours). not sure if they ran out of concrete but a second truck was involved. the guy who poured the concrete not surprisingly said that although two trucks were involved, the concrete mixture was identical. he said the curing process can take as long as 2 months. he said if there's unevenness then, he'll come take a look.

but from what I can find, it looks like what I'm dealing might be called crazing and like you noted, won't go away. :(

as noted in my earlier comments in this thread, the guy who poured the concrete never mentioned anything about watering the driveway. and, I obviously didn't know enough about concrete going into this project. :(

any repair solutions available? my understanding is that with crazing, the cracks are only at the surface and therefore, only affect the cosmetic appearance as opposed to the structural integrity of the concrete. I'd definitely appreciate it if someone knowledgeable can confirm.

thank you in advance.

Those are plasticity cracks. Meaning when the concrete is still plastic during initial curing the water "loss" at the surface is happening quicker than that below it (hot sun and/or windy dry temps). Fiber is used in concrete to combat this specific issue. The aligatoring of the pattern means they are more "crazing" than "plastic shrinkage" cracks but both occur the same way. The "crazing" just means a section might have had a little more cream from troweling or wetter mix when they first dumped to that spot from the truck, so the cement (the portland vs aggregates) concentration is higher in that spot on the surface. They won't continue to occur.

It does not affect the slab structurally, just aesthetically. It could possibly lead to spalling in the future. There's not much to fix them, grinding or fillers or sealers.